Rollup TV: Plasma Mainnet Special

Transcript

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Ah, heat. Heat

up here. Heat. Heat. Happy [ __ ] Friday.

Trillions. It's 900 p.m. on a Friday. Get trillions. 10 out. We're going high. Let's go. 10:30. I know. I feel like I'm singing karaoke and soul. I'm holding the microphone. I'm doing with that thing. This guy's ready. I'm ready. This guy's ripping it. Yes, sir. Market goes up one and a half% vibes are up. Totally launch. Happy mirror launch. Big day for the boys today. Going going live. Going live with Paul, CEO of Plasma. Welcome back to World TV.

Friday, September 26th. I'm Andy. It's your boy Rob here. He's live from Korea. I'm back home in the States and we're going to be interviewing Paul from Plasma. Our fund invested in Plasma uh maybe like eight months ago. They've done very well. Executed top-notch. One of the probably the best launch of the entire year if not the last two years. So stoked to talk to Paul. Uh shouts to them. Then we got Meera Kuran from Meera. also a uh friend of the show and we our fund invested in Mera. They launched their mainet today. We invested in them a while ago, maybe about a year ago. They did well. I tweeted about it.

Stoked on that. So, two good interviews today. It's going to be a fun stream. It'll be a shorter one. It'll be a vibe. Uh and yeah, uh state of affairs in the market today is uh is people are scared. So, I don't really see a need to be scared, but people are scared. Rob, I saw a tweet from Kobe said, "You see 1333x on a platform and you think everyone can just be an accredited investor." It's not the way see it's not the way angel investing works.

Yo, be careful. Do your research. Um, do your research. Do your research. We did both of these deals. Um, seed investing is hard. Angel investing is hard. Yeah, somehow we make it look easy. We've had our share of losses. Let's see what the chat's gonna say. Come on. Let's get some Let's get some vibes going down here. We We got more base app codes to give away. We've got, you know, we got things going on. Let's make sure that we got the overlays. I think we I think we got some tips that should be flying in.

Don't see him on the stream. That's a word to our producer behind the scenes. Nice, nice, nice, nice. Yeah, I mean, we we'll get Paul set up. Happy Friday. It's been a long week, honestly. We just had so many so many banger streams. Uh, and market's just been all over. We announced Bass. We announced Koshi this week. Two just massive brands. Crazy that that was just the same week that we're still in. Feels like a year ago. It feels like so long ago at this point. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Um, and that was Tuesday.

Yeah, that was Tuesday. Now it's Friday. Yeah. I had another breakthrough about Korea. Just a realization. Mhm. At my podcast this morning with TJ Miller, he was like, "Oh, what you know, he was we were talking about Korea and we both said that like we really like it." And it was kind of like, yeah, like people nice, they're friendly, it's safe, it's clean, everything's great, but it's also like rather affordable, but also really nice and everything is super modern. And so it just got me thinking like how are they able to like make some of these upgrades to their infrastructure without pricing in those upgrades?

And I think and it kind of like the the word that came to mind is like efficiency. Like they've got to be just a really efficient group of people that when they work together, they're able to like get [ __ ] done really quickly and really efficiently without expending too much res in resources as a as a way of like getting [ __ ] done but also keeping costs down and therefore not passing cost to the end consumer. And then I was sitting at dinner and I saw these like waiters and waitresses that would like you would get their attention and then they would literally run over to you. Yeah.

And I was like I was like and I've seen that that's like kind of like a you know an eastern you know Asian kind of thing. And I'm like at a certain point do those little those little like time savings from running over you do those add up and like Yeah. to create more efficiency. Yeah. It's hilarious. So So it's been a good experience. So like you had a good interview with TJ the the guy from Silicon Valley. TJ's hilarious. such a character. And that Dodge OS project is hilarious, too.

It is hilarious. And I like the way that TJ describes it. He describes it as a a real thing built on top of a fake thing that enables more real and fake things. Oh my goodness, dude. TJ. Yeah. So, he kind of told the story of these how these two guys met or how him and and the Dojo s founder met. They met. It was like some loud bar at a club, but you know, he was like, "Oh, Dogecoin." He was like, "I get it. It's a joke. I get it."

Yeah. And then it kind of just fueled like, "All right, Dogecoin, it's a joke. It's kind of like this fake thing, but Doge OS is like the smart contract and wallet layer on top of Dogecoin." Meanwhile, just a an aside, Dogecoin is the second longest proofof work chain ever. I think longer than Litecoin. So, you know, it's fake in some very very significant ways, but it's also very real in other very significant ways, which is just it's just, you know, is is interesting when it comes to the technology side of things. And then Doge OS obviously extends that technology, makes it more real. So, you know, I explained my interplanetary thesis for

Dogecoin and why I think it's poised to be the reserve currency of an interplanetary species. No way. They seem to like that. And and actually to quote the do Jordan, the Dojo S founder, he he says it's inevitable. Oh my gosh, dude. It'll be a fun interview. Yeah, we'll be sharing that one pretty soon. All righty, Rob. Well, that sounds good, man. I think we got Paul ready to rock and roll. Uh Paul Fax, the founder of Plasma. Uh big successful mainet launch just happened.

Um yeah, it's been I bet it's been a journey for them to get to this point. The last couple weeks probably been wild as well. So, we're looking forward to having them on. Uh give giving Paul some uh confetti and a congratulations and just figuring out what what they're trying to do. Um they have a lot they have a lot to uh you know build out now and scale it up and yeah here we here we go with Paul uh XPL obviously launched has been kind of sucked the liquidity out of the market after a I mean Aster was like the hot thing and then plasma came out and I think it really kind of sucked the liquidity from a lot of of places people were expecting uh kind of a big move that that's what they got. So

yeah, guys, should be a fun conversation. I bet Paul is tired. Uh I see him in in the back. He's up. Paul, welcome to you. I I don't know. Like I'm I'm looking at my own video and I do look quite tired, but it's good to see you guys, man. Talk to us about the last couple couple days, man. How's it been? It's it's it's been intense. I mean, the the the entire week was was intense, right? because there's so many so many moving pieces in involved in in kind of launching a launching a chain, not launching a network because in in in the end you're dependent on like so many external variables that that are like not fully within your control. And so it's it's been it's been a very intense week. Um it's uh knock on wood, so far everything um has has has gone well. Um

and and we're very happy, but um I mean everyone was quite exhausted yesterday night for sure. Yeah. Yeah, man. Well, the most strenuous part seems to be by you now. Is is that how you're thinking about this? No, not at all. Um I think the the the most strenuous part is is ahead of us now. Um, I mean, we um we announced the the the Plasma 1 product obviously pre um pre pre-launching the the chain and and working on on on on that and it feels like I mean this is now basically like the the the beginning of of actually of actually kind of truly building what we've always set out to to to to build. Um, and and obviously the

the chain and the DeFi ecosystem and and the exchange component and all of that is is a is a massive is is a massive component, but but God, we have a lot of things to to to do in the next years. Paul, how old are you again? 26. I'm 26. Yes. Yeah. Just like me. Crazy man. Um, yeah. Well, congratulations. We we know the struggles that, you know, happen in mainet launches. It's not easy. We'll throw you some confetti. We want to kind of understand your vision going forward, how you're thinking about the product line, how you're thinking about the chain. Obviously, there's a lot of activity uh on Plasma already due to the pre-eposit setup. Um, and I think one thing before we kind of move too far

looking ahead, why did you guys decide to do the the structure around uh this kind of like XPL allocation to people who who deposited that has gone viral? You know, the whole if you did $1 into the chain, you got $10,000. Now obviously people didn't do that exact thing in ci you know at scale but a lot of people got rewarded and I think you avoided a lot of the FUD that comes with these kind of mechanisms. How did you guys pull that off and why did you guys choose this way to kind of reward commu uh the plasma community and the plasma collective?

Sure. I mean I think for us uh and and and I mean I think this is somewhat in line with how we how we've operated generally right where I mean the public sale on on like very clear very kind of transparent kind of parameters basically um anyone could participate um and and and and we like for us it's it's been important to kind of go to market in a in a capacity where like participation is is is possible um basically um and and Um um I mean Nathan, who you also know extremely well, who who's kind of leading the the the stable coin collective um side of things, who's been absolutely killing it on on on that, by the way. Um and and like I think we've

always wanted to like in the end this is a massively communitydriven effort, right? Um, but like a stable coin chain specifically is is is something that you want people to be excited to to use and and you you want to like actually like it needs to be grassroots basically um for it to to kind of truly work and and have value. And I think um the the the decisions that were made on on on on kind of token allocation and token distribution I think I kind of fall within that ethos basically. Well, I hope you know it's a consensus that this has been the best launch of the year, if not the cycle. So, a little pat on your back for the efforts. And I think people were excited about seeing

the rewards come in and being like, "Okay, cool." Like they actually thought about strategically how to kind of uh keep even let's call it like the smaller fish happy and keep people, you know, wanting to be a part of the network. Let's talk about some of what's actually happening on the chain right now. There's some amazing yields on a Athena uh Athena's USD. There's looping going on. There's XPL rewards. You know, I think the the main thing people want to know is where are the best places to get yield on plasma now kind of how how does that you know ecosystem looking? I just kind of gave it gave some uh answers there with ALF or with athena.

And then I mean my question is kind of like how are you thinking about the sustainability of the of the yields on plasma with regards to XPL token rewards? Uh how do you want to kind of turn this into something where this isn't just like a farm and dump scenario. This is a kind of a longer term uh community who wants to participate in DeFi on plasma. So maybe you could just unpack the the kind of uh current happenings and and how you're thinking about it. Sure. Absolutely. I I I think that that that's a very that's a very valid question, right? But I mean, I think you do have plenty of examples of of these kind of very large private deal TVL for higher uh massive defy kind of pre-committed TVL and and then kind of nothing happens. And I think

we're very conscious uh of of of kind of that and entire complexity of it. I think for us we we always know that like distribution is is is absolutely key to to actually getting getting kind of basically omniresence which you kind you need omniresence as a as a stable coin uh network right because I mean the word network is like you need as many nodes in in the network as possible for for for it to have value right I think one thing that actually people may may have missed because it was right right before launch um is is our kind of pretty substantial um and and expanded Binance earn um partner partnership where um users in Binance um which we're doing together with A who we love working with and they're valued and fantastic

partners of ours um and and and I mean Binance has 280 million users and and they can now deposit into a on plasma um basically straight on on on exchange which I think for us is a is a massive unlock and so in general we're looking for ways to kind of get to very large scale distribution to kind of make onchain money markets basically usable um for for for anyone that kind of sees sees value in it. And I think that to to an extent you need to kind of branch out from just the cryptonative mercenary pharma com community uh because that doesn't scale infinitely well and and they're quite fickle and and so you can't really build an entire strategy

just around that. And then so um that's something we spend a lot of time on. something that actually sorry I'm I'm um don't want this to seem like I'm answering a fully different question than than to bring to bring this back to to to Fasma DeFi and and how and and why it's sustainable. Um I think a big component of of that obviously is you need true organic usage, right? that that that isn't that isn't paid for and then that that isn't um that that that isn't just pure incentive farming, but but you do need wide distribution and kind of real demand to to to use to to use um the chain to to to an extent and and then so I think that is uh that is something we we've done pretty well at

um and and it's something we continue to be very focused on. It's been a unique strength like th this is something that chains go live and they launch their token then they start thinking about their ecosystem they start using their token as a way of incentivizing liquidity you guys were able to do that before the token launched it I guess what what did you guys have that others don't and the best team in all of crypto and and so that's a moat like my next question was do you expect other teams to now try and replicate that But they can't get your team.

Yes. I mean, look, I would hope so. Um but uh um otherwise I would need to have some certain conversations. But um um in in in the end, I I I tr I mean, I truly believe that we have a like truly incredible team. Um and and and um I think whoever I name here, I wouldn't do a kind of job because I couldn't name everyone basically. Um, but I mean specifically Lucid who's the best crypto COO on on on planet Earth and and um and and Nathan is fantastic and Vinnie is killing it and um like I'm sorry I'm starting to name people here um um because I'm definitely going to miss some. But um I I truly think that is a massive massive mode.

Um, and and and and I think having incredibly sharp, very long-term oriented people that actually kind of want to build something of value, I think is is truly the greatest mode any company can have. Beautiful, Paul. Well, Paul, then uh on the on that note with regards to thinking about how others are playing in this game, I had Jeremy Aair on the show last week and we were talking about how circles think about ARC and their chain as well as just the broad USDC distribution strategy. Um, you know, there are now, uh, several other players from the likes of Stripe, from the likes of Circle, from from, you know, also within Tether that are trying to basically attempt to be this stable coin

uh, transferred layer for the world. I mean, when we look at comps, we're thinking about Visa, we're thinking about some of the largest payment processors in the world who have market caps of, you know, 50 plus billion dollars and, you know, process trillions a day. And so when I was talking to Jer Jeremy about it, he thought about this in the lens that you he wants USDC to be everywhere. He wants it to be in every in the same way that Netflix is on smart TVs, smartphones, smart, you know, fridges. He wants USDC to be everywhere. Now I assume Paulo clearly has that same philosophy and has executed on it extremely well in a global setting. when it came to ARC and the chain thought process, he mentioned that he looks at

this as the evolution of kind of uh web 2 technology where you can use Google Chrome on your Apple computer. You can use it on your Apple TV, you can use it on your iPad, you can also use uh you know a streaming service on a LG TV or a Samsung TV or a uh you know a Google Chrome Chromebook can use Apple products etc. So he kind of made this analogy and an about how these are kind of going to blend together into this whole broader like landscape of this tech stack and he had this really grow the pie mentality.

So I want to pass it to you when you're thinking about this stable coin chain wars if you will. How are you thinking about the competitive landscape when it comes to plasma being the category leader being the first to market? you know, what is your edge and why why in in the scope of this kind of grow the pie mentality do you feel like plasma is going to contribute heavily? Sure. I mean, it's it's a complete meme to to say this, but I think stable coins are kind of truly at at the at the kind of beginning in inflection point to to an extent, right? But I think I mean, you now have 260 270 billion in in outstanding mm stable coins. Um, we say trillions a lot. Um, I think that is going to be trillions. Um, and and so I

think like you do have a kind of massively expanding pie. Um, and and and so I truly think um that like the the vast majority of stable coin growth is is basically in the future and and and not not not in the past. And I think that that's kind of a a massive component of of how we think about how we think about competition. It's changed a lot how how we think about that, right? because I mean for us when we started um the the the question wasn't basically how are you going to compete with Stripe but the question was basically why does any of what you're doing here make sense basically uh and and and why why would stable coins need a chain and and why is this interesting and just use Ethereum um and and then so it's it's it's it's been very gratifying

to see how how kind of the the perception of what the competitive forces we have to deal with h how that has changed and I think that that reflects reality, right? But I mean, we we do now compete with um um Stripe, which is one of the largest payment companies in in in the world. And I think in the end, I think we're going for different things. And I think that that there's kind of different approaches here. Um and and and and so I think that's probably, you know, I don't actually even think we're with super competitive with tempo directly. Um and and and and and so um I think it's it's going to be a an absolute kind of war to to to really win this at at at massive scale. And no one has I like I I I truly I don't think Ethereum and Tron have

have won at scale because I think um what at scale means now I think won't mean at scale in two three four five years basically. And and so um I do think you will have stable coin chains with hundreds of billions of of of stable coins. um uh on them and and truly kind of trillions moving every day. And I think that is the future we're building for. And then so we try not to get into the kind of pettiness of um oh what is Tempo doing, what is Codex doing, what is I I have deep respect for for those for those teams. I think they're very sharp and I think that they're going after different things to an extent.

Yeah. And and another step function change in has been the in in the competitive forces that you're describing has been the acceptance of trillions and and this is part of the the US government having to finance their ch their their debt essentially and leveraging stable coin companies as a as a way and a means to to issue that debt. And so it's been the acceptance now that stable coins will reach trillions in circulating supplies. I'm curious more generally, what are the knock-on effects of of an ecosystem that has trillions of stable coins? You know, there there's been guys like Arthur Hayes that have kind of equated this to some massive multiples in some DeFi applications, but more specifically to

some of the the DeFi apps that are on plasma and the way in which you're seeing these competitive forces evolve, how do you think the landscape will change and what will it look like? what's the point A point B between now and and that trillions state which isn't I'm not even going to call it an end state because it'll probably grow from there but you know that being point B how do you think that landscape shifts from where it is today? Yeah, I think that that that's a pretty complex uh uh question. Um I'm saying it involves kind of so many layers of of of change in in in the end. Um I I have very strong conviction that like the the the world you describe is is going to come in into reality basically and and I

think we're we're very focused on on that. I think the path to to that is is um is is is going to be a complex one to to to navigate. I mean, especially in in the US, I think there's a there's a realization how important stable coins are strategically as a as as a country, right? I mean, you have Scott Besson talking about stable coins kind of being one of the key strategic components of of of kind of global USD monetary policy basically because you you do you do need someone who's just a price indifferent purchaser of of your debt. And so I think um I can go into a 30 minute rant here on on like how this all is connected to global politics and and USD strength and I'm going to sound like a

conspiracy theorist. Um but I I do think that is that that is reality and I think stable coins actually do solve a lot of issues and and and provide a lot of unlock in in in many places and and the market seems to take that as a given. Now I I think my question more specifically is how does that affect the onchain landscape as these things become more and more integrated? Sure. I I I think the the lines just get blurry, right? I mean, you're you're seeing this. I mean, it's been it's funny because I mean the the two things have kind of been multi-year memes that that hadn't really happened until I think kind of recently, which is on on one hand the institutions are coming. Um and and on the other hand, the kind of D5 mallet of like CFI in the front and

and DeFi in the back. And I think both have kind of been talked about for probably I mean five, six, seven like I've spent all of my life in crypto. So like I'm time time I I've lost perception of time but um um I I do think both of those things are now very very kind of happening in a very real way. Um and and you you're seeing that I mean Coinbase now has a has has a heel product that that kind of routes to to to to an onchain product and um Binance now does w with us and and a together and I think you'll see more of of those types of things where I think you you'll have kind of centralized kind of trades that that that are powered by of onchain

processes in in the back. And I think that is also truly where the unlock is where I think you'll you'll have kind of a mix between kind of onchain only and and then kind of the the combination of of of tradi and and and onchain and and so um that that's something we're quite focused on on kind of um getting getting right as plasma. Yeah. No, I mean I definitely think that's the right way to think about it and that's probably why you guys really put a lot of effort into thinking about this plasma one product, right? Because when you've got this idea of, you know, what's great about this is that it's it's unsexy. It's stable coins. It's crossber payments. It's banking the unbanked. It's giving people access to a strong US dollar across the world when they need it the most. And crypto is

really kind of coming together around these use cases. Again, as we were as as we were promised in 2017, you know, I you were around then that that's what we were all f but I think the the kind of the the core tenants of I think why why crypto has has value. I think permissionless money is very high up on on on that list and I think it just took a bit longer than than know most people expected but I think it's happening now. So let's you know talk to us about the plasma 1 app and the neo bank. What is the vision here? You know you know if you could go out five years from now and you know read a headline about plasma 1 app you know what would that headline say? What's the vision here for this app? How do you want to execute this?

Sure. I think stable coins as kind of a core rail are the kind of perfect tech stack to to build something consumerf facing and and very tangible around um and and um for us on one hand is obviously a kind of distribution wedge um and and on the other hand it it um it it truly I think makes for a meaningfully better just user experience um for for someone that that's using financial tooling. I mean, as a longtime user of of stable coins myself, um, and I mean, um, I live in systems that actually have pretty robust banking, right? And and that have kind of actually relatively fantastic access to to to financial technology and and and uh and and and all of that, but I think

that isn't true in in the majority of the world. Um, and so I think you you do you can build kind of a a meaningfully better experience than on chat banking rails if if you if you build things on on stable coins. Um, and and so um that is why we're building plasma one to to to an extent also to kind of show what's possible with stable coins. I mean we work with lots of fantastic companies that that are building on top of plasma themselves and and we we don't like we're not um we're not looking to like not do that, right? because I think that that that that has immense value obviously and then so it's also a a a just kind of very tangible example of like oh you can build truly incredible kind of products on stable coin rails as

as as the core obviously using plasma. Could you say a bit more about this distribution wedge because I I I think I understand the concept but I haven't quite heard anyone frame it in the way that that you just did. Maybe you could explain that concept a little bit and how you guys are applying it. Sure. Absolutely. I think in the end, I mean, we're building a stable coin chain and and and that that is highly dependent on on network effects. Um, you need to be omnipresent and and you you need to basically have extremely wide reach from the B2B angle to the B2C side of things.

you basically need that's actually something that that that to Tron excels at or or has excelled at is is kind of getting true enduser distribution and and so that is something that that's critical for us to to get right and and for us that is like the the path to get there is to have something very tangible to to actually use plasma itself basically and and plasma one is is that that's at least a component of of why we are building plasma one. Yeah, it would you say another part of it is around the UX of Plasma's chain. The way that it was designed is theoretically and you know practically far superior to that of a typical crypto UX from the Plasma 1 app uh user base. Because if I'm

thinking about users in Turkey, in Syria, in Brazil, Argentina, a lot of, you know, Tether's target markets where that's quite dominant as far as USDT being the, you know, the stable coin. you know, these these people aren't going to be wanting to deal with seed phrases and wanting to be dealing with all these different approvals and and the they want free transfers. They want to be able to send it to their family easily uh seamlessly and also safely. Like, you know, there's a part of it where they want privacy and they want to, you know, there's a beauty in maybe being able to like pull back funds.

Like, I know that's not exactly how blockchains work, but the traditional payment system has some advantages. you know, maybe maybe the UX and part of the app design uh is going to be, you know, very much focused on that or, you know, I'm I'm no 100%. I mean, I think you're you you're a fantastic Plasma One pitch. Uh you you you I'm in full support of this. All right, so Paul, I want to talk to some comps. I know we just got a couple minutes. I think Visa is trading at, you know, in 50 60 billion. Uh I think if you look at some of the other payment processors uh handling trillions, they're up there. People are curious about uh how how you know XPL is going to have some sort of value acrruel is

going to is going to be able to uh be a active force in the network. A lot of people are excited about revenue and buybacks right now. That's kind of probably a flash in the pan, but still we can see that the the crypto economic systems are evolving and I think frankly for for the better. And so I'm not asking about, you know, where XPL is going to go or just more about how you're thinking about it. How how is XPL going to be a sustainable asset that people who want to comp to circle comp to uh other public stocks as as well as public companies, you know, and they look at XPL as the best way to get stable coin exposure. These are my words, not yours, not financial advice.

You know, how do you think about actually making that a reality for your XPL holders? You know, what do you have to say to them here today? Sure. Absolutely. I mean, that that is something we've we've thought about a lot. Um it's it's it's uh um I think for us it's very clear that like in in the plasma economy um XPL has has to play a very central um role because I think you don't want the kind of unis swap asks is a situation right where you have like a confusing amount of entities that like each acrue some value and like no no one kind of truly knows. I think that is in in the end not kind of the the the correct path to to to take. Um there's a lot of complexity um in in in this

obviously and and it's something we've spent a lot of time on and then we'll kind of um think elaborate more on on publicly as as well. Um and so it's it's it's somewhat tough for me to kind of give give a very clear very straight answer. Um but I think that the one thing that like for us and I mean we've kind of built this entire um mumm system in a in a very community aligned way, right? And I think we will continue to to do that. And and and I think that um obviously also um as a kind of central tenant of of those kind of needs to involve um the the XPL token.

Beautiful. Beautiful. I got one last thing for you and I think Rob might have something as well. Paulo put a a tweet the the C or the co-founder of Tether. During an interview a guy asked me as an entrepreneur my mission is bringing my startup from zero to one. You know, he was citing Peter Teal's book, Tether is not a startup anymore. At which stage from zero to 100 is Tether? He replied, I feel like we're still at 0.25. Our potential growth from here is limitless. So much more to disrupt through innovation. So much more to build. Once people understand the real master plan behind every single calculated action we take daily, they realize the true unprecedented potential of this company.

That's the way I often define Tether as a once in a century company. Tether is also going out and looking to raise from the rumor mill at $500 billion valuation looking to raise 20 billion. Uh in addition to that, the CFTC has approved stable coins for settlement on traditional American derivatives markets. How important is is Tether to Plasma's vision? Maybe a silly question. And then how important is this broad uh you know relationship that you have with Paulo pushing stable coins forward in the White House? How impactful is that for plasma?

I mean, one thing to to say straight off the bat, if if if Tether is at what point 0.25, then I think Plasma is at 0.00001. And we have a lot of things ahead of us. And sounds bullish. Um, I mean, look, like the the the guys of Tether have obviously kind of built a truly generational company. Um, and and and have done that over many many years with a lot of kind of extremely long-term oriented decision- making. And and so I think that that is something that we um we can only we can only hope to to to to emulate um as as as plasma. Um I think in USDT has has very much won the the stable coin game um is is is my view. I'm somewhat incentivized to to have that view. So so you can you can

probably discount that a bit. But um I I I truly think that is that that is kind of the the the reality of it. And so for us it was always very clear that that plasma would also be of built around USDT. I mean we have a kind of multitude of of stable coins on on the chain and I do believe in a multi-stable coin world obviously but um Tether is just so incredibly dominant and and then has this extremely wide distribution mode that I think is is very very hard to replicate and and so um we we we do appreciate them. um and and and and and and really like working with them and I mean I have the the deepest of of respect for for Paulo and and the entire

Tether crew. Yeah. As do we. Uh Paul, my my last question is, you know, there's so much that happens on a daily basis and in in crypto and across this entire industry that that someone might be coming across Plasma, it's a super successful launch. What's the one thing that you would want someone who's just coming across Plasma to know and and where can they go to learn more? I mean, everyone can go to learn more at at at plasma.to. I think one thing that I would want everyone to know is we will win stable coins. Um, and and I think stable coins are going to be one of the largest kind of just markets globally, point blank. Um, the the TAM is global GDP. Um, and and uh we're looking to to to take a chunk of it. Um and and and um

I think that vision is is very clear on our end. I think um global commerce will move on stable coin rails and and plasma is going to power it. Boom. Powering internet money thanks for joining the show. Good luck. Have a good weekend. All right. Have have a beer for me in London if you get a if you get five minutes off. Take a breath, man. I I'm I'm my plan is just to sleep to be honest. So I don't think many beers will be consumed. All right. All right. Thanks for your time and uh congratulations on the launch and to all the partners to all the investors to all the you know people in the uh collective and in the community uh thank you for your uh work lot to be done. This is a new day one this is just the beginning

and I know that's how you're thinking about it. So stoked to see some of the updates from plasma 1 and everything else in between and uh we'll see you soon man. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. All righty Paul buddy. Perfect. Later. Bang. Rob, stablecoin super cycle is on, man. Is it is it or what? Wow. I think it's funny. He said Paulo and Tether won the stable coin game. And then he said that Plasma will win stable coins. Yeah. I mean, one could one could do some deductive reasoning there. I mean, look, my key takeaways here is that Jeremy is saying that this that the stable coin pie is a grow the pie. Paul is saying the same thing. they both

don't want to come off as like super uh, you know, pushing, you know, and kind of kind of downplaying their competition and, you know, you know, being that figure. But it's clear that like this market is only getting bigger exponentially. And I think one thing that Paul didn't hit on that I think he has a massive edge in that it will obviously be eroded as time passes is that they are first. Like they are live. Like their app is going to be live. Their chain is live. They can just start growing the network effects far quicker. And I know that that's not always the like the edge that you know people look for and that you know you can ascribe value to, but being first is an edge.

And I think that's something that uh obviously these guys did did well by actually pushing it forward uh and being you know the the first. Um honestly I can't even imagine what's happening in Tether's HQ right now in Lugano. I know Paul and the plasma team spends a lot of time there and a lot of the other kind of tether corlary teams do. Like that must just be an absolute like madness zone right now. Like think about it. They're buying farms in Latin America. They're investing into Bitcoin soccer teams. They're raising like it it like their time has come. I mean it's just it it must be mad over there.

I I think of it just in my imagination as more of a mecca than a madness, you know? like people are going there, they're like, you know, they're kind of meeting and it it's a place where like [ __ ] gets done. Um, and it doesn't strike me as something that's like super like hectic or chaotic. It strikes me as some something that's like pretty strategic and calculated. I don't think they're buying too many farms in Latin America. I think they they're dipping their toes, but you don't think they're just aping cows. not super core to their you know like Fede from uh from Lambda.

He always writes buy bitcoin golden cows and I have a friend down there in Paraguay, a good friend who uh you know his his girlfriend's family who's Paraguay and they just buy cows as a way to store their value. Like that's the thing that again that we could have touched on more is that Tether's market and Plasma's market is like you know DeFi with wealthy whales onchain like the DCF gods of the world those guys cooking bringing tons of value bringing them but it's really like get this plasma one app and this goes for all stable coins and all stable coin chains get get a user interface that is easy get that thing into every country that needs help from an economic perspective

offer them easy access and democratize access to USD and then just do that at scale a and like the network effects are just going to be exponential. Then when you think about like actually in inside of crypto, it's more of like can they get plasma into every centralized exchange as a blockchain to transact on, right? So you got Ethereum, Tron, Arbitum, Optimism, you know, Salana, Sui, you know, Avalanche, couple others like that you can send to, you know, chains from base, right? You know, Plasma should be the the go-to for USDT. Another thing just to kind of close off this monologue is I think the Binance earn thing is interesting because you as as Paul said this distribution wedge is

the only way to kind of make the network effect happen and Binance is one you know then it goes into like okay you go into the biggest exchange in Turkey then you go into the the leading payment processor in Brazil Pix you you onboard Pix to Tether somehow and then all of a sudden the Brazilians can save in dollars and use uh their he eyes to transfer you know in a domestic fashion. So it's like these distribution wedges they can be one but they're typically one by one team I think at least and I think tether is that team and then hopefully plasma can be you know the the actual you know it'll be it'll be interesting to see if it plays out where it's a like winner takes most market. One thing I'm

noticing about Korea in particular is that it's very vertically integrated. Come out here don't really take Uber. You don't really like Google Maps will show you a place but it won't give you a route. Apple maps won't even show you the place. Everything is cacao and so it's cacao maps, it's cacao taxi, it's all vertically integrated and so there you know on the one hand like you're right like you know th this paves the way where if you can if you can partner with these these verticalized platforms and use those platforms as your distribution wedge then you win that entire market. But then you know the other side of of this and and and again you know this is kind of why that question about you know the landscape the competitive forces in the

landscape and how this is going to play out is a very complicated question because on the other hand you you could say like these guys are going to go they're going to build their own chain like the caca of the world the pixes of the world like they're going to go build their own chain they're not they're going to want to have ownership and vertically integrate it themselves. So, how that shakes out, we'll see. I I think there's plenty of the pie for them to start to eat up now as it pertains to the onchain economy, the centralized uh exchanges. And then one thing that you mentioned in in that monologue is is something that I tend to agree with is that you kind of approach the demographic from both ends of the

spectrum and it meets in the middle at that frontier which is something that's only possible with onchain internet money and that's the idea of composable yields. And so you you currently have like the the you know cattle ranchers in in Paraguay or Argentina that they not only do they need access to to save in dollars and have a stable currency and this is not even on their radar is the second piece of that is the ability to then earn a stable 4%. So us in DeFi and and people in CFI and a entire asset class of fixed income and private credit and RWAS is all focused on yield. And so they that demographic has already

realized like the ability and access to get dollars. They're now focused on that second part. But the democratization of of crypto and the industry collapses that. And so it's the same technology that can deliver a a dollar to someone around the world is the same technology that can deliver deliver a dollar plus yield to anyone around the world. And so I think I think that that is just kind of like another piece of kind of I mean it's certainly not a public good, but I think it's just a general like boost to the economic well-being of people on Earth.

Yeah. Just we had a question we had a question from chat. When will Plasma open the basis trade vault? Um I just heard back from the team guys. They are going to be doing that very very soon. Soon TM. Um so get ready for that. That should be coming. And and yeah, I mean that that is Rob. I I I think what you're saying here is like you know the the access to the dollar in a global setting is extremely valuable. the western world is currently kind of working around how to get yield across to people and and how to best actually bring yield to uh you know back to the shareholders. So USDH was all about giving yield back to the

uh hyperlquid assistance fund, right? We we know there are stable coins being launched that are going to try to undercut Tether in the US market, undercut circle in the US market and pay back some yield to their holders. That's okay. That's allowed in the Genius Act as of as of now. Um you know, but but what I think is is more important is that the people around the world, they don't even necessarily care about the yield right now. They just want access. And I think that's kind of what you're getting at here. Exactly. And and access is the primary um the primary thing that's in demand.

It's the use case. It is the use case. Yes. Absolutely. And then you extrapolate that to equities and to trading US stocks, you know, 247 if if we get that. I mean, I I wish we had some more time to talk about what it means for plasma if uh stable coins are able to be transacted in US derivatives markets, you know, could that be settled on plasma or like could that is that going to settle just another centralized exchange, right? Yeah. Like how will you Yeah, exactly. Like that's just another distribution wedge right? It's a great question. So So more to come, guys. I mean, it's a Friday. I mean, I'm happy having a short stream today. Um, our boys are happy about basis. Looks like they're all good. Guys, if you have some questions,

feel free to drop them in the chat. We are checking the chat on YouTube. Uh, the link is in the Twitter description. Um, and yeah, Rob, maybe we can cover some of the latest news that's came out this morning. I don't think I got one for you. Kraken has raised $500 million at a$15 billion valuation. Wow. As of this morning. as of minutes ago. Believe that's confirmed. 500 million. Yeah. What's your reaction? Wow. At 15 bill.

Yep. Wow. Um I mean sounds like an IPO to me coming. This is a preo in my opinion. Yep. And why is it important? What you know there's speculation that Tether is is doing the same thing. That's why they're raising 20 at 500 bill. What's the purpose of raising around, you know, pretty pretty soon before launching an IPO? Well, just think about it. It's you you want to get the most strategic investors possible who are going to support the launch of the IPO. It's like the same thing as like a pre It's almost like a K round in crypto before a token launch. It's like they just did a K round. It's basically what happened. these guys will get

think about it like if it's distribution if it's if it's you know market making if it's partners if it's important strategic people that they want to get in to own Kraken shares um you know our friends over at Vertex got acquired by Inc and Kraken and they've also you know been allocated shares from what I understand which which means that you know there's a solid solid amount of capital like congregating in this area. So, is there any more details on on the race outside of just the the mention from who from who was leading or is there any details?

Uh, let's see if we can find details. Yeah, Kraken, man. What an OG Kraken is one of my first uh centralized exchanges when I found the tweet. Watcher Guru got, you know, Yep. They're usually pretty pretty bullish biased, but we don't mind. Yep. So it just says it just says that they raised uh it just says yeah uh 500 mil at 15 bill uh valuation. Did Kraken tweet about it?

It'd be nice to know. I do not know yet. They've just been tweeting their recent launches and whatnot as of now soon and Mera. Yeah. Two good two good ideas. Yeah exactly. All right, Rob. I think we should just close this out, have it a short stream. I think it's getting late over there for you. It's been a good week. Um, you know, I'm glad that we just did a uh we were supposed to have the the Mirror guys on, but but they're dealing with classic mainet stuff. So, um, you know, I think we're I think we're in a good place to wrap here. Guys, thanks for tuning in. That was a fun conversation with Paul. Big launch for them this week. Um, once again, we'll throw them a little confetti. Congrats to the Plasma team and also congrats to the Mirror team for their launches to Port Kos of

ours. been a successful week. Thank you guys for tuning in and I think it's time to sign off for Monday. Cheers guys. Have a good weekend.